Timeless
by T'eyla
Summary: Some things are timeless. Others are out of time.


**Title**: Timeless

**Beta**: wihluta, euclase

**Rating**: PG

**Genre**: Angst, General

**Characters**: 10th Doctor, Rose, OC

**Word Count**: 2,000

**Disclaimer**: Not mine.

**Summary**: Some things are timeless. Others are out of time.

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The doorbell rang when Leon was halfway through the fifth chapter of _Berserker Stronghold_, and the sudden sound made him flinch and steer his warrior right into a crevasse.

"Fuck!"

He instinctively ducked his head, half-expecting a shout from his mum to "bloody watch his language", but of course, he was alone at home. Dad was out looking for a job, Mum and Nick had gone for groceries, and he'd stayed home with the excuse of a headache, planning to circumvent the no-gaming verdict his dad had imposed after Leon had failed the math quiz.

He hesitated for a second - what if it was Nick at the door, and he'd come in with Mum in tow while the gaming console was still set up and running? - but then the bell rang again, and Leon discarded his worries. Even if Mum found out he'd played, she probably wouldn't care all too much. She had other things on her mind.

When he opened the door, though, it wasn't Nick, or his mother. There was a strange man standing in front of the apartment door. He was rather tall - Leon had to look up to see his face - and he was also very thin. The suit he was wearing was brown with narrow stripes, and for a bloke in a suit and a tie, the man had pretty untidy hair. He looked kind of nice, though.

"Hello?" Leon said. "Can I - uh, can I help you?"

The man smiled. "I hope so. Is this the Tyler family's place?"

Leon nodded. "Yeah. I'm- I'm Leon Tyler. My mum's not home, though." The second the words were out of his mouth, Leon bit his lip. "She'll, uh, she'll be right back, though."

The man nodded. "Actually, I'm not looking for your mother." He slid his hands in his pockets. "Tell me, Leon, does a Mrs. Rose Tyler live here as well?"

"A Mrs. Rose -" Leon frowned. "You mean Grandma Rose?"

The man smiled again, but Leon didn't think that this smile was meant for him. "I believe I do, yes," the man said. "Does she live here?"

Leon shook his head. "No. I mean, yeah, she's here. She's back there in her room. But -"

"But what?" The man looked concerned all of a sudden, and Leon was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable. He squinted.

"Are you one of the nursing home people?"

"Nursing home- uh, er, yes," the man said and nodded so that the strands of hair that were hanging in his forehead bounced up and down. "Yes, I'm from the, um, the nursing home. Can I come in?"

Leon hesitated. He didn't know this man, and his mum always said never to let anybody in when he was alone at home. But she would also be spitting mad if he sent away the nursing home people when they had finally decided to make true on their promise and drop by.

Leon stepped back a little and pulled the door all the way open. "I guess."

The man came in and closed the door behind him, looking around. Leon watched his eyes pass over the wall where Mum had hung his and Nick's drawings, and the coat rack that Dad still hadn't screwed back on properly so that one end was sagging. The man's gaze finally settled on the dark spot on the floor just next to the kitchen door where Nick had tried the indoor firecrackers. Actually, they hadn't been indoor firecrackers, Leon had just told Nick they were, and when Mum had found out, she'd been madder than Leon had ever seen her. He hadn't been allowed at the computer for weeks after that.

"So." The man in the brown suit looked around. "Your grandmother's room is..."

Leon pointed at the only door down the hallway that was closed. "Back there."

He watched the man walk towards it, and after a moment's hesitation followed him, entering Grandma Rose's room right behind him.

Leon always felt uncomfortable in here. He remembered that there'd been a time when he'd liked visiting with Grandma Rose, back when she'd still been well enough to sit up in her rocker and watch the SatView, or put on her thick glasses and read a book, or even tell Leon stories.

But that had been a long time ago, before the Stroke. The Stroke had happened on Nick's sixth birthday, and ever since, Grandma Rose hadn't been the same. The smell in her room had changed from the comfortable Grandma Rose smell to something unpleasant, and Leon had stopped coming here on his own.

He stood in the door and watched the man in the brown suit slowly approach the bed. He was taking very small steps, almost as if he was scared to get too close, and Leon thought it was strange that someone who worked at a nursing home should be afraid.

"Rose?"

Leon took a step into the room. "She can't talk," he said.

The man looked around, and Leon recognized the look on his face as the sort of look adults got when they were trying to hide that they were upset. "What?"

Leon looked away and slid his hands into his pockets. "She can't talk. She had a Stroke, and she can't talk. She can't walk, either."

"Oh." The man looked back at Grandma Rose. "Does she know who we are?"

"I don't know. She never says anything." Leon shrugged and squinted up at the man. "She wouldn't know you, anyway. You've never been here before."

The man looked around at him, and for a short moment, Leon thought he had done something wrong and the man would yell at him. But then the man only nodded slowly and stepped back from the bed. He stood there for a moment with his head down, looking at the floor, and then Leon had to step aside quickly as the man went past him back into the corridor.

Leon quickly followed him. "Are you going to take her?"

"What?" The man turned his head, and he still had that look on his face, the same expression Mum had been wearing when she'd told them that Dad had lost his job.

Leon shifted his feet. "My mum will want to know. If you'll take Grandma Rose or not. To the nursing home."

The man looked at him for a long time, and Leon began to feel uncomfortable again, thinking that maybe he shouldn't have let the guy in after all.

"I'm not from the nursing home," the man said finally. "I just said that to make you let me in. I'm sorry."

Leon frowned and buried his hands deeper in the pockets of his jeans. "Who are you, then?"

Again, the man took a moment to answer. "I'm an old friend of your grandmother's."

An old friend? Memories of Grandma Rose's stories filled Leon's head, and he felt excited. "Are you Oscar Hammond?" he asked, breathless that this might be _the_ Oscar Hammond, the hero who had starred in so many of his grandmother's story about how she and Torchwood had saved the world over and over and over again.

When the man in the brown suit shook his head, Leon did his best not to show his disappointment. He should have known, anyway. This bloke was way too young.

"No," the man said, "I'm not. I'm-" Suddenly, the sad expression disappeared from his face, and the man bent down so his eyes were level with Leon's. "Did your grandmother tell you a lot of stories, Leon?"

Leon felt uncomfortable having this stranger so close, so he retreated a small step. "I suppose."

"What did she tell you about?"

"She told me about the Cybermen," he said. "And the Daleks. And that she used to work with Torchwood, which was really secret back then. She used to save the world, and Oscar Hammond helped her."

The man, who to Leon's relief had backed away a little, nodded. "Did she ever talk about anything aside from Torchwood?" he asked.

Leon frowned. "What do you mean?"

The man sighed and slid his hands in his pockets again. "Did she ever talk about someone called the Doctor?"

Leon hesitated. "Which doctor?" he asked. "Oscar Hammond was a doctor, I think."

"No," the man shook his head. "It's his name. He's called 'The Doctor'."

"That's a strange name."

"Not too strange," the man said. "Just strange enough so people remember it. Did she ever talk about the Doctor?"

Leon thought about this, casting his mind back over his many memories of Grandma Rose's stories, and then he shook his head. "I don't think she ever did," he said.

"Oh." Leon noticed that the sad expression was back on his face. "Well, maybe it's better that way."

Leon didn't quite know what to say, so he only watched the man as he walked back to the door and rested his hand on the knob. Instead of turning it, though, he looked around at Leon.

"Tell me, Leon, how old are you?" he asked.

"Eleven."

The man nodded and took his hand from the knob, sliding it back into his pocket and leaning against the door frame. "And how old were you when your grandmother had the stroke?"

"Nine and a half."

The man nodded again. He wasn't looking at Leon, he was looking at a spot somewhere above him on the wall. "Leon," he said, "what do you want to be when you grow up?"

"I want to be a game writer," Leon said. "I want to write a game about Grandma Rose and Torchwood and the Cybermen. Everybody's going to love it, and I will make loads of money." He grinned, the excitement at his idea lighting up his face and mind and showing him wonderful images of the hero of his game, Grandma Rose, young and beautiful, with Oscar and all the other Torchwood guys at her side, saving the world from aliens and machines and all the other bad guys from Grandma Rose's stories.

The man looked down at him, and there was a small smile on his face. "A game writer," he said. "That's nice. That's a good idea. You should do that."

"My mum says it's stupid."

"Does she now?" The man raised his eyebrows. "Well, Leon, let me tell you a secret. I know about mums. I've had one, I've lived with one, I've lost one and I've met and known a lot more than one. The thing about mums is that they are right so often that it's hard to tell when they're wrong. But they can be wrong, Leon. They definitely can be wrong."

Leon didn't quite know what to say to that, so he only smiled and shuffled his feet. The man didn't seem to mind.

"I'd better get going," he said and put his hand back on the door knob. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Leon Tyler."

"Uh, er, yeah," said Leon, looking back up. "Nice to meet you, too, Mister-"

"Smith," the man said. "My name is John Smith."

With that, he opened the door and slipped out. The click of the lock closing behind him seemed rather loud in the empty apartment.

Leon stood there for another couple of moments; then he shook his head and quickly went back into the living room. If he concentrated and tried not to screw up, maybe he could get his warrior through chapter five before Mum came home. It was certainly worth a try, anyway.


End file.
